The Conservative Party of Canada is calling for Ottawa to drop the federal tax on gas and diesel fuel for the rest of this year. The Tories say their plan would eliminate the Fuel Excise Tax at 10 cents per litre, the Clean Fuel Standard at 7 cents per litre, and the Goods and Services Tax at 8 cents per...
The Canadian economy is expected to see modest growth this year, but the ongoing war in the Middle East and continued trade uncertainty are among the risks to that projection.
The federal government should consider a one-to-two-point increase in the GST and slower growth in non-defence spending to finance a massive jump Canada’s military budget, according to a new report from the C.D. Howe Institute. “Some combination of tax increases, spending cuts, or taking on more debt is required,” wrote authors Colin Busby and Nicholas Dahir. The analysis warns that...
One senator said the Liberals’ march towards a majority in the House is also motivating discussions around the future of the Senate, raising the possibility that Prime Minister Mark Carney will appoint the leader of the government in the Senate to cabinet.
Stellantis NV is discussing options for building electric vehicles in Canada with its Chinese partner, Zhejiang Leapmotor Technology Co., according to people familiar with the matter, a sign of how quickly the auto industry is being reshaped after Canada opened the door to companies from the world’s largest car market. The talks are in an early stage, said the people...
A new Leger poll suggests the federal political picture in Canada remains defined by Liberal stability and NDP uncertainty. The Liberals, led by Mark Carney, continue to lead, with both personal approval ratings and satisfaction with the government remaining high, although the upward trend appears to have plateaued. At the same time, the federal New Democratic Party (NDP) is entering...
The Weekly Nanos Tracking is produced by the Nanos Research Corporation, headquartered in Canada, which operates in Canada and the United States. The data is based on random interviews with 1,000 Canadian consumers (recruited by RDD land- and cell-line sample), using a four-week rolling average of 250 respondents each week, 18 years of age and over. The random sample of...
On Sunday, after his runaway victory in the federal New Democratic Party’s leadership race, Avi Lewis linked his own anti-Zionist views to an ancestor’s opposition to the creation of a Jewish state in the Middle East. “My great-grandfather was a leader in the [Russian anti-Zionist] Jewish Labour Bund,” said Mr. Lewis, who noted that it was founded in 1897, five...
Alberta separatists aren’t just enthused by the fact they have apparently surpassed the necessary 177,000 signatures to force their referendum onto ballots — they’re also celebrating when they reached the target. Stay Free Alberta claimed that accomplishment a week before a judge in Edmonton hears a First Nation’s injunction bid against the citizen’s initiative on April 7, arguing that the...
It should not have ended this way. It should have ended with a national celebration of an amazing, vibrant, and still young woman who managed to surmount all the challenges in a mostly male world; who managed to storm through a mostly male engineering school right up to the day she graduated summa cum laude ; who managed to get...
The CEOs of Canadian insurance and asset management companies Manulife and Sun Life both say they see opportunities for growth in the Chinese market in areas like health care and investment advice as part of Canada’s push to diversify its exports. Sun Life CEO Kevin Strai
There has been a lot of debate in recent weeks about the province’s decision to take over the City of Toronto’s role in the agreement governing Billy Bishop Airport and to acquire the city-owned lands at the airport. Some have asked why the province would take such a step. The answer is that Billy Bishop is a critical piece of...
I have an urgent request for Prime Minister Mark Carney: please come to Vaughan, Ont., to meet with our Jewish community. As Vaughan’s mayor, I want you to know that Jews here feel angry, scared, defiant, tired, shocked and beleaguered. Who can blame them? I’ve lived my entire life in this country, but I have never before witnessed the shocking...
If you want to know what Alberta Premier Danielle Smith really believes, you have to listen to her when she’s amongst her fellow travellers. We were afforded that opportunity last weekend, when Smith graced the Cornerstone Forum, a confab of conspiratorial alternative media personalities, with her presence. There, she echoed suspicions that Ottawa is preparing to round up pastors for...
Aaron Gunn wants a national energy program. He’d never describe it that way, of course, but the MP for North Island-Powell River is just the latest in a long line of Conservative politicians to unintentionally argue for the revival of Pierre Trudeau’s signature energy policy. With gas prices spiking above $2 per litre in his province, Gunn tried to blame...
There’s a scene in Prime Minister, the acclaimed documentary about Jacinda Ardern, where the former New Zealand prime minister is captured in a private moment: raw, unguarded, visibly carrying the weight of leading a country through catastrophe.
For more than two decades, I’ve travelled regularly to China. Prime Minister Mark Carney’s dramatic reboot of bilateral relations has increased both the frequency and the potential outcomes of my trips. I was present for the Prime Minister’s dinner event in January in Beijing. I’m back in Beijing this week, as is Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne. Mr. Carney has also...
Somewhere, James Laxer is shedding a wistful tear. Along with Mel Watkins, Cy Gonick and others, Mr. Laxer led the radical Waffle faction within the federal NDP in the late 1960s and early 1970s, whose mission was to pull the party sharply to the left. They advocated for nationalization of major industries, strict limits on foreign ownership, sharply higher taxes...
Avi Lewis is a truly unconventional politician. He has managed to make himself a champion of young Canadians, which is quite a feat given that he’ll be in his 60th year in May. They provided a lot of energy to his campaign but also tend to vote less and that could prove a challenge. Under his leadership, the NDP will...
In all the reflections pouring in at the passing of Stephen Lewis, you’ll be hard-pressed to find – notwithstanding his left-side politics, with which many differed – a negative word. It is testimony to his stature as a humanitarian giant. On the global stage, Canada never produced a more eloquent standard-bearer for social justice than Mr. Lewis. I first had...
Federal Liberals, who hoped the government’s pipeline pact with Alberta was a public relations effort that would never see the light of day, should brace for its approval — including, possibly, with public money. Three Liberals privately suggested to the Star that Prime Minister Mark Carney may put federal money behind a new pipeline to the west coast — despite...
If the Carney government was looking for a fool-proof roadmap on how to rein in large online platforms from knowingly causing harm to their users — including children — the recent judgments from California and New Mexico provide some excellent guidance. First, a jury in New Mexico found Meta, the owner of Facebook and Instagram, liable for misleading its users...
The question “Cui bono – who gains?” was a Roman judicial construct popularized by Cicero. Lenin made it famous in his 1913 article in Pravda on Russian society, “Who Stands to Gain?” The question has served for centuries as a starting point for evaluating strategic options. The prediction of unintended consequences has often served as a check point on the...
Prime Minister Mark Carney is not oblivious. He knows, as any reasonable person would, that it looks terrible for one of his MPs to try to undermine an expert witness on forced labour in China during a parliamentary committee meeting. Last week, Liberal MP Michael Ma grilled Margaret McCuaig-Johnston, a senior fellow at the University of Ottawa, about whether she...
It’s back to the future for the NDP — and then some. Last weekend the party elected 58-year-old filmmaker Avi Lewis as party leader. During his campaign, Lewis pledged to impose a wealth tax, stop oil and gas exploration, implement national rent control, and set up public grocery stores. Ed Broadbent, the NDP leader who wanted to nationalize banks back...
Some Liberals, Conservatives and even New Democrats may be tempted to believe that the new NDP leader, Avi Lewis, is too far out there on the left to be a serious electoral threat. That underestimation may be a mistake. I’ve heard some serious people say over the course of the NDP leadership that a Lewis victory would spell the end...
Whenever and wherever U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents showed up in Minneapolis this past winter, citizens pulled out their whistles – warning away the targets of U.S. President Donald Trump’s violent masked paramilitaries. Demonstrators attempted to block ICE from carrying out its work, while others served as witnesses, videotaping the agents to show their behaviour to the world...
The federal NDP, now run by cis male Avi Lewis, showed us two kinds of crazy at their leadership convention on the weekend. First, there was social crazy, with arguments over whose victimized identity deserved time at the mic. Delegates who have identified with the same gender assigned at birth — “cis” people — didn’t have much chance. Then came...
The federal NDP convention in Edmonton in 2016 was the scene of two fascinating events: the unceremonious dumping of Tom Mulcair as party leader and a rhetorical clash between Alberta Premier Rachel Notley and the supporters of a broad statement of principles known as the Leap Manifesto. Notley, less than a year into leading the first NDP government in Alberta's...
There are moments that reveal a nation’s character more clearly than any policy platform or political speech. One such moment came in the summer of 1972, when Idi Amin decreed the expulsion of Uganda’s entire Asian population, and the fate of thousands of terrified families hung in the balance. Discussions between Aga Khan IV and Pierre Elliott Trudeau – two...
With the easy part over, newly minted NDP Leader Avi Lewis knows his real challenge is just beginning. He inherits a divided party, a split Parliamentary caucus and provincial wings opposed to his agenda. The Alberta and Saskatchewan parties want nothing to do with him. Saskatchewan’s NDP Leader Carla Beck wrote to tell him Saturday that she won’t meet with...
Can Avi Lewis’ brand of left-wing populism win over Canadian voters? It’s what he and the NDP are hoping will happen, but as Lewis takes the reins of his party, he’s already causing division.
The conflict in the Persian Gulf and Iran’s missile and drone strikes on key oil and gas facilities in Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Kuwait have caused fires, shutdowns, and extensive damage at major energy export hubs. Global oil and gas prices have surged. In addition to its impact on Canadian consumers, the crisis has driven up fuel and...
Imagine a Canada ruled by a “mini-Trump.” It’s not so implausible, lawyer Frédéric Bérard told the Supreme Court last week. Western nations are teeming with clones of the American president these days. If such an illiberal leader were to come here, Bérard argued, we would simply have to hope that our politicians do the right thing...
The president has dispatched thousands of troops to the Middle East where he is at war with Iran. There are wars of necessity, and wars of choice. Donald Trump has created a third category: wars of whimsy. When will Americans realize that three more years of Trump's chaos could end in unfixable catastrophe?
By now, it’s clear that no matter what kind of resolution U.S. President Donald Trump attempts to impose on his latest misadventure in Iran, this conflict and its global repercussions will be far from over. More likely, it will resemble George W. Bush’s infamous “mission accomplished” moment aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln in 2003: a premature declaration of victory that...
The thing about Mark Carney’s government is that he’s not subtle about what he’s interested in – and what he’s not. When his cabinet was sworn in, the Prime Minister issued a single mandate letter for all his ministers containing just seven priorities wrapped relentlessly around economic development and sovereignty. And the way Mr. Carney has gone about tackling that...
Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand will join multi-nation talks hosted by the U.K. on Thursday on finding diplomatic options to reopen the Strait of Hormuz trade corridor. Anand says all countries involved should know Canada will not hesitate to help secure the strait once there is a ceasefire, but the Liberal government has not decided yet on specific measures. The...
Prime Minister Mark Carney said Tuesday he's still committed to delivering incentives to help Canadians go green, something he promised during his bid for the Liberal leadership a year ago. Carney promised during the leadership campaign to re-fund the government's Greener Homes Grant program and to explore offering discounts to low- and medium-income homeowners who make energy-efficient retrofits.
The RCMP is clarifying previous comments from Commissioner Mike Duheme, saying the police organization is aware of incidents of intimidation and harassment by foreign states, but is unable to identify current criminal links. “What we can say is that the RCMP is aware of complaints of intimidation and harassment against certain communities across Canada. The RCMP, and the broader Government...
Internal documents show the federal government pushed for travel rules that cut airlines more slack around paying compensation to passengers, despite resistance from Canada's transport regulator. In 2023, the Canadian Transportation Agency drafted regulations that would scrap some reasons the airlines could use to deny customers compensation for flight delays or cancellations when they were required for safety purposes.
Trump made the claim on his Truth Social website. U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday claimed that Iran's president wants a ceasefire in the Mideast war. "Iran’s New Regime President," he wrote on Truth Social, apparently referring to Masoud Pezeshkian, although there has been no regime change in Iran, "much less Radicalized and far more intelligent than his predecessors, has...
Avi Lewis may be flush off a convincing victory within his party, but a new poll suggests the new NDP leader has a steep hill to climb with the broader electorate with more people thinking the party is irrelevant than relevant. Article content Not quite a third of Canadians believe that the left-leaning party is even relevant, never mind if...
Challenges in Venezuela include ongoing safety concerns, an unstable government, massive investment required. When U.S. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum travelled to Venezuela with oil and mining executives last month, he was trying to pitch them on the opportunity that exists in that country’s neglected oil and gas fields. Then last week at a conference in Houston, he again tried to...
The Liberals have more than 30-per-cent support in the province, but trying to capitalize on those numbers without a good reason for an election would come at a cost, says Liaison Strategies' David Valentin. Prime Minister Mark Carney’s Liberals are holding steady in Alberta and enjoying a close and historically significant second place in one of the federal Conservatives’ last...
Champagne says his trip builds on Carney’s visit with Chinese President Xi Jinping in January. Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne is on a trade mission to China, an attempt to woo a crucial trading partner as Canada looks to shore up friends and strengthen the country’s economy. The visit by Champagne builds on a meeting between Prime Minister Mark Carney and...
Experts say Stephen Lewis awakened the Canadian public's consciousness to the HIV-AIDS pandemic raging in Africa, and they credit him with galvanizing the political will to stop standing idle. Lewis, who dedicated his life to advocating for social justice, died on Tuesday at the age of 88. Dr. Adrienne Chan, who has worked in the HIV sector for over two...
The Liberal government’s voluntary gun buyback program for soon to be outlawed weapons will likely miss its mark. More than 2,500 models of assault-style weapons will be banned in October, but the deadline to apply for compensation expired on March 31. Not including administrative costs, the federal government has set aside $248.6 million to compensate gun owners. The amount allows...
Prime Minister Mark Carney told a closed-door fundraiser crowd Monday night that floor-crossing MP Michael Ma represents “Liberal values,” after the former Conservative politician drew controversy over comments about forced labour in China. In video obtained by Global News, Carney told the crowd at the GTA fundraiser that the Liberals were “glad” to welcome Ma to their ranks after the...
Provincial rules around alcohol and the federal government's "Buy Canadian" policy have been flagged in a new report citing several trade irritants between Canada and the U.S. The annual document prepared by the Office of the United States Trade Representative said market access barriers imposed by provincial liquor control boards "greatly hamper" exports of U.S. wine, beer and spirits to...
Conservative staffer Stefan Kapuran doesn’t remember how he ended up in the hospital. “It was just a completely regular Monday. The night before was my birthday,” he recalled, having not done “anything crazy” to celebrate. The 25-year-old said he remembers starting his workday on March 9, picking up the dry cleaning as he headed into the office of Conservative MP...
Prime Minister Mark Carney says he has "absolutely not" been considering proroguing Parliament if he gains a majority in a series of upcoming byelections. Speaking at a news conference with reporters in Wakefield, Que., today, the prime minister said the idea "never even entered" his mind. The Globe and Mail newspaper reported the Carney government is considering proroguing Parliament if...
Environment and Climate Change Minister Julie Dabrusin will not reveal whether the Alberta-Ottawa memorandum of understanding sets a target date of 2030 by which the province will hike its industrial carbon price to $130 a tonne. In November, Prime Minister Mark Carney and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith signed a major new energy co-operation agreement, outlining the conditions that need to...
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is calling on the federal government to cancel a proposed high-speed rail line between Toronto and Quebec City. Speaking to reporters in Peterborough, Ont., on Tuesday, Poilievre called the project a "boondoggle" that would waste taxpayer dollars. "Carney Liberals will confiscate farmland and private property, disrupting communities and harming the quality of life of local residents...
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith says a deadline for reaching two agreements connected to her landmark energy deal with Ottawa will be missed. The November memorandum of understanding outlined a number of commitments and steps both levels of government would take to eventually see a new bitumen pipeline built connecting Alberta to B.C. tidewater.
TC Energy chief executive officer Francois Poirier is again calling for major changes to Canada’s regulatory approach, warning the country is driving investment away by slowing down big energy projects. Speaking to the Canadian Club of Ottawa on Tuesday, Poirier said Canada continues to deter capital with lengthy permitting processes. “Capital goes where it is welcome. And for too long...
Canada "condemns" Israel's "illegal" invasion of Lebanon as a violation of territorial sovereignty, Prime Minister Mark Carney said Tuesday. Using stronger language than his government has used to date, Carney also called for a ceasefire to end the worsening conflict as Israeli ground troops move deeper into the country. "It's an illegal invasion," the prime minister said. "It's a violation...
The byelection that returned Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre to Parliament cost taxpayers more than $2.3 million, according to estimates released by Elections Canada. When Poilievre’s Conservatives were defeated in the April 2025 federal election, the Conservative leader also lost his Ottawa-area riding by more than 4,500 votes to Liberal newcomer Bruce Fanjoy. After more than two decades in Parliament, the...
Human rights. Equality for women. The plight of African families decimated by HIV-AIDS. Stephen Lewis spent a lifetime fighting for causes close to his heart -- and his weapons of choice were words. Lewis died on Tuesday, at the age of 88, after an eight-year battle with stomach cancer. "Stephen spent the last eight years of his life battling cancer...
The Liberal government's $3.8 billion nature protection strategy will put Canada's 2030 nature conservation goals within reach, Prime Minister Mark Carney said Tuesday. Announcing the new plan at an event in Wakefield, Que., Carney said the federal government will create new national parks, urban parks and marine conservation areas.
Canada Post says it’s moving ahead with the restructuring plan mandated by the federal government in the fall, which could permanently end door-to-door mail delivery. In an emailed statement to CTVNews.ca on Monday, the Crown corporation said the broad transformation of its business model will “ensure we can meet the evolving needs of Canadians without becoming a recurring burden on...
The federal government is set to extend its cap on an annual alcohol tax increase for another two years in a bid to rein in costs facing Canada's brewers, wineries and distilleries. Excise taxes on booze had faced annual increases pegged to inflation on April 1 each year, but the Liberal government has temporarily capped those hikes at two per...
More than three years after Canada and Germany promised to kick-start a transatlantic trade in a new clean fuel by 2025, another global crisis is putting supplies of natural gas at risk and Canada still has no green hydrogen for Europe to replace it with. Some of the projects in Atlantic Canada that then-leaders Justin Trudeau and Olaf Scholz hoped...
Starting April 1, eligible home buyers in Ontario will no longer have to shell out 13 per cent HST on new homes, according to the latest deal struck between the province and the federal government that was announced Monday. Additionally, the province, along with the federal government, have also agreed to spend an allotted $8.8 billion to lower Ontario’s municipal...
A longtime federal public servant says she’s become "collateral damage" as her department clears its backlog of Phoenix payroll issues so it can test replacement software — and in doing so introduced an error to her file, refused to fix it and is now clawing back hundreds of dollars per paycheque.
Along with the 49,000 vehicles arriving in Canada comes insight into China's innovative EV infrastructure. Hundreds of robots hum on a factory floor in Ningbo, just south of Shanghai, their long arms swooping and twisting, welding together different models of custom-ordered electric vehicles (EVs). Robots also move briskly in the corridors delivering parts to different areas of the plant, playing...
Prime Minister Mark Carney has committed to not proroguing Parliament in order to take control of House of Commons committees if the Liberals win three upcoming by-elections and form a slim majority.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- As President Donald Trump assembled his Cabinet last week, he asked Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Vice President JD Vance to give an update on the Iran war.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Thousands of additional U.S. troops are heading to the Middle East as the Trump administration has insisted that progress has been made in talks with Iran and has threatened to escalate the war if a deal is not reached soon.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- A federal judge on Tuesday ordered the Trump administration to suspend its construction of a $400 million ballroom where it demolished the East Wing of the White House, barring work from proceeding without congressional approval.
NEW YORK (AP) -- U.S. gas prices jumped past an average of $4 a gallon for the first time since 2022 on Tuesday, as the Iran war pushes fuel prices higher worldwide.
Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand will join multi-nation talks hosted by the U.K. on Thursday on finding diplomatic options to reopen the Strait of Hormuz trade corridor. Anand says all countries involved should know Canada will not hesitate to help secure the strait once there is a ceasefire, but the Liberal government has not decided yet on specific measures. The...
Trump made the claim on his Truth Social website. U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday claimed that Iran's president wants a ceasefire in the Mideast war. "Iran’s New Regime President," he wrote on Truth Social, apparently referring to Masoud Pezeshkian, although there has been no regime change in Iran, "much less Radicalized and far more intelligent than his predecessors, has...
Canada "condemns" Israel's "illegal" invasion of Lebanon as a violation of territorial sovereignty, Prime Minister Mark Carney said Tuesday. Using stronger language than his government has used to date, Carney also called for a ceasefire to end the worsening conflict as Israeli ground troops move deeper into the country. "It's an illegal invasion," the prime minister said. "It's a violation...
U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran have driven up prices, darkened the outlook for the world economy, sent global stock markets reeling and forced developing countries to ration fuel and subsidize energy costs to protect their poorest. Ongoing strikes and counterstrikes on Persian Gulf refineries, pipelines, gas fields and tanker terminals threaten to the prolong the global economic pain for...
Group of Seven foreign ministers met on Friday in France to discuss the Russia-Ukraine conflict, with deep divisions apparent over the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran, following U.S. President Donald Trump’s repeated complaints that America’s allies have ignored or rejected requests for help in the military operation and in confronting Iran’s retaliatory attacks, including the closure of the Strait of Hormuz...
The controversy around Liberal MP Michael Ma’s comments on forced labour in China is an early test of how Prime Minister Mark Carney’s China policy is being put into practice — and whether it can remain pragmatic without drifting into equivocation, accommodation or self-censorship. Carney’s recalibration — toward a more interest-based approach aimed at stabilizing ties with Beijing while widening...
Canada is facing a housing affordability crisis that is placing a growing burden on households, particularly lower-income households, for whom housing and energy are already the largest areas of spending. Although the residential sector has reduced its GHG emissions since 2005, decarbonization has not progressed at the pace required to meet Canada’s 2030 and 2050 climate targets. Despite improvements in...
A collection of SubStack publishing within Canadian public affairs.
Prime Minister Mark Carney’s office wants to bust up a monopoly. I think I’m the target. Let me explain. The Privy Council Office (PCO), home of the prime minister and cabinet, has been flooded with complaints about its failures to comply with the Access to Information Act.
Canadian troops may be only days away from deploying to the Middle East to aid the U.S.’s and Israel’s war on Iran. The latest indication is a joint statement expressing concern about Iran’s restriction of oil tankers through the narrow Strait of Hormuz signed by Prime Minister Mark Carney and NATO allies late in the week.
Canadians who have neglected to pay their taxes to the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) have been coming forward in droves to take advantage of new amnesty rules.
Quebec's secularism law, Bill 21, prohibits certain public servants from wearing religious symbols while on the job. It was passed in 2019 with a pre-emptive use of the notwithstanding law - a section of the Charter that protects legislation from court intervention if the legislation goes against other freedoms.
This live event was recorded on March 30 at StFX & hosted by The Brian Mulroney Institute of Government.
There was a time when immigration was seen as not only important to Canada but something that was a major part of what made Canada great. Has that time passed, why and at what cost? Former Harper cabinet minister James Moore and former Trudeau senior advisor Gerald Butts have their thoughts on those questions in this, their latest "conversation".
Mark Carney has proposed a 1,000-kilometre high-speed rail line connecting Toronto to Quebec City, with trains reaching speeds of up to 300 km/h. It would be Canada’s first true high-speed rail system. On paper, the idea is appealing. But building it is far from straightforward. Host Noor Azrieh, tries to answer the question: how do you build ambitious, nation-shaping infrastructure...
